The event titled Promoting Innovation, Investment and Job Growth by Fixing America’s Patent System was well attended by a who’s-who of power players within the IP community. The focus of the program was to explore the direct and essential role that strong and enforceable patents play in allowing investors and entrepreneurs to engage in [...]
The Federal Circuit’s panel decision in Achates Reference Publ’g, Inc. v. Apple Inc. held that PTAB decisions to institute IPR are unreviewable even where the § 315(b) time bar may have been violated. The en banc question here is whether to overrule Achates. The USPTO’s interest in the case was clear from the large [...]
The Federal Circuit announced with a per curiam order on January 4, 2017, that the full Court sitting en banc would decided whether judicial review is available for a patent owner to challenge the PTO’s determination that a petitioner has satisfactorily met the timeliness requirement for filing an inter partes review petition under 35 [...]
Prior to being hired in March 2013 by the U.S. Department of Commerce to become an Administrative Patent Judge (APJ) on the PTAB, Matthew R. Clements represented Apple as patent infringement defense counsel while working for Ropes & Gray. Since September 2014, APJ Clements has been assigned to numerous petitions, mostly CBMs but some [...]
In the eye of patent lawyer, more patent means more business, and more business means more personal wealth. But at whose expense? Where does the capital come from and where is the value of creation? We are talking about a vicious war between the interest of law firm and interest of industry at large. [...]
Should attorney-client privilege extend to communications between clients and patent agents? In March earlier this year, a split decision by the Federal Circuit answered this question in the affirmative. This is a unique extension of the attorney-client privilege due to the nature of the patent agent profession. Patent agents are not required to go [...]
